Most commercially available video games available in 1994 are (A) highly violent warfare motifs that test the user's reflexes and knowledge of the rules of the game, (B) "exploration" games in which the user passes though and explores various places, (C) simulator games such as flight simulator games, which are a variation on exploration games but which test a user's ability to operate a simulated vehicle or other device while exploring various simulated places, and (D) card games and computer operated versions of "board games". While this list is not exhaustive, it serves to highlight the differences between the present invention and what preceded it.
The present invention represents a new video game methodology that generates a storyline using a set of re-usable substories. In particular, substories represent an action or event that can take place in the execution of a game, and furthermore, most substories represent actions that can be performed by many of the fictional characters in the game. Thus, each substory will have a set of variables, usually including a "subject" (the character performing the action in the substory), and a direct object (the person, if any, who is the target or recipient of the action). Some substories have additional objects (additional persons who are the targets or recipients of the action), indirect objects (e.g., the action by the subject on the direct object relates in some manner to the indirect object. For instance a substory whose title might be (DefendsOther) might represent A (the subject) defending B (the indirect object) against an attack by C (the direct object).
The characters fulfilling the various roles of each selected substory are dynamically assigned during the execution of the game, and each substory can be reused numerous times with the same or different characters fulfilling the various roles associated with the selected substory.
The present invention also allows for much more "human" interactions between characters. For instance, characters can be assigned personality traits such as pride, empathy, gullibility, initiative, volatility, strength, greed, lust and sexiness, as well as interpersonal relationship traits such as affection, dominance, trust, blood ties, and loquaciousness that define each character's specific relationship to other characters in a game.
An important characteristic of the present invention is that interactions between fictional characters in games utilizing the present invention can be based on events that happened in the past (i.e, earlier in the game). Some prior video games make some minimal use of "history", primarily by (A) retaining ongoing scores for various players, (B) making a game more difficult to play as the user reaches higher score levels, (C) remembering which players that have been eliminated.
Unlike such minimal uses of history, in the present invention fictional characters chose to perform actions based on historical events, such as because Character A hurt (or insulted, killed, helped, didn't help, raped, or saved) my sister (brother, other relationship), I'm going to do the following to Character A.
Another example of using "history" in accordance with the present invention is as follows. Assume that Character A and Character B have had a number of prior interactions in which Character A hurts or insults Character B. Each time that the system selects a reaction for Character B, the system searches for a specific types of prior events in which Character B is the subject and Character A is the direct object. For instance, if Character B has already done actions 1, 2 and 3 in the past, then the system will select a particular reaction substory (e.g., a different action 4) based on that information. This and other types of "sequence of reactions" can be implemented for numerous types of substories. In this way, the game can have characters perform sequences of actions that have logical connections and order, thereby giving the generated games a feeling of robustness.
Another feature of the present application that is unlike prior products is that part of "what happens" in a game or computer generated entertainment program in the present invention happens in the form of news or "gossip" told by one fictional character to another. In this way information is communicated from one character to another, allowing additional characters to "choose" actions based on that information. In particular, when a character is told of a past event, the system may generate a reaction plan to be executed by that character in the future where the reaction plan is specifically in reaction to the past event.
The present invention uses a matrix of re-usable substories which are "selected" during the execution of a game. Any given event during the execution of game or computer generated entertainment program in the present invention is an instance of a predefined substory, with a particular subject and direct object used during the execution of the substory instance. The characters who witness an event or who are told of an event react to the event or news by "making plans" for the future. The "choices" made by fictional characters in the present invention are, in fact, selections of ones of the substories in the matrix of substories provided by the present invention.
A "plan" is a substory selection for execution "by" one of the characters (i.e., with the character to whom the plan is assigned being the subject of the plan). One aspect of each substory is that each substory has an associated set of "consequent substories", which is a finite set of reaction plans that the subject, direct object or any witnesses of an event (i.e., an executed substory) may make in response to the event. All the possible plans that the event's participants and witnesses may make in reaction to the event are evaluated and a subset of those possible plans are selected in accordance with story line weights that are computed or otherwise assigned to the set of possible reaction plans. The selected reaction plans are then entered into a plan list or queue for later execution.